


The Forever Call

by thegrimshapeofyoursmile



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II
Genre: F/F, aka a creepier version of a mermaid, merwoman!isabela, that's it really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-14
Updated: 2015-01-14
Packaged: 2018-03-07 13:26:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3174880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegrimshapeofyoursmile/pseuds/thegrimshapeofyoursmile
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merrill knows how all the stories end, but by the time she remembers, she is already captured in a new story's beginning.</p>
<p>"Come," she says softly and the woman rises from the sea like a wave, bones and skin glistening from salt. Her hair is long and dripping wet; later, she binds it back with a bandana Merrill gives her. Merrill knows better than that, but she still asks, "What's your name?"</p>
<p>The woman stands naked in front of her, naked and unashamed and smiling. There is blood on her teeth and tears in her eyes, but the contact is soft when her fingers touch Merrill's cheek before she shakes her head, laughing. </p>
<p>"What should I call you, then?" Merrill asks and oh, how she is already in love even though she knows how all the stories end. </p>
<p>"Isabela," the sea woman says and laughs again as if it was a joke only she could understand, taking Merrill's hand in her own. //// Some Merribela.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Forever Call

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bluewishdust](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluewishdust/gifts).



She is a woman born from the sea and Merrill knows how all the stories end. She is beautiful, wicked eyes and wicked smile and graceful curves, a voice to die for, a face to fall in love with. 

Merrill knows how all the stories end, but by the time she remembers, she is already captured in a new story's beginning.

"Come," she says softly and the woman rises from the sea like a wave, bones and skin glistening from salt. Her hair is long and dripping wet; later, she binds it back with a bandana Merrill gives her. Merrill knows better than that, but she still asks, "What's your name?"

The woman stands naked in front of her, naked and unashamed and smiling. There is blood on her teeth and tears in her eyes, but the contact is soft when her fingers touch Merrill's cheek before she shakes her head, laughing. 

"What should I call you, then?" Merrill asks and oh, how she is already in love even though she knows how all the stories end. 

"Isabela," the sea woman says and laughs again as if it was a joke only she could understand, taking Merrill's hand in her own. 

////

All women of the sea can get a soul by loving and being loved, but Isabela does not want one. 

She dances through life in a blur of too-short skirts and flying daggers, her high boots always wet, always filled with saltwater. She kisses people she does not care about, fucks them and is gone before they can even blink. She is what the sea made her to be: unashamed and frivolous, breezing through life like a storm. She likes Varric the most because he never falls in love with her and tells her stories she can match with her own. 

Merrill knows she should leave it at that, but sometimes she sits at the docks and looks at the moon and her heart hurts, aches.

///

When the moon is full, Isabela comes to her. She takes her by her hand as if she had never done anything else and leads her to the docks. Black and quiet and full of terrors is the night, but the worst terror of them all is the woman beside her and so Merrill is not afraid. 

She steps into the water after Isabela, even though she knows how all the stories end, and she wonders how it must be to suffocate on the black, poisoned velvet that is the water in the docks. 

Isabela is not simply a story. She kisses Merrill, soaked and with water dripping from her hair, but her lips are gentle and her teeth are hidden away like gems in a box of jewelry. She keeps her safe against the stillness of the water and everything that hides underneath the surface, cold, webbed fingers securely placed around Merrill's hips. 

When the moon hides shyly from them behind thick, grey clouds, Isabela starts to sing for her to make the stars even brighter. 

For Merrill, it is enough. 

////

Isabela cannot stay on land forever. Merrill knows this well, but she can be a selfish person, selfish and longing in the loneliness she lives, an outcast of the outcast, the girl who sees too much just because she accepts the world for what it is, and so she tells herself, _just a little longer. Just one more day._

Isabela stays and stays and stays and starts tearing things down, hurting a lot of people through her selfishness. But Merrill knows she cannot be blamed; she is a woman of the water, after all, and water never cares about the stone it carves or the house it destroys. It walks it's way, trickling or running or crashing down, as unstoppable as time itself. 

_Just one more day,_ Merrill thinks as she watches Hawke fight against the Minotaurus, clutching the ball of golden thread Varric had given her against her chest. _Just one more._

Hawke kills the Minotaurus and saves the city. Isabela stays and stays and stays. At night, she sings Merrill's name like a prayer. 

///

In the end, it is the fire that makes Isabela flee. All the salty water she has, the one in her eyes and hair and boots, cannot protect her when the city burns. With it, they all burn.

_Just one more day,_ Merrill thinks and cries because the city she lived in for long, long years and where she had found not happiness, but friends and love, lies in shambles. Maybe it is her fault; after all,she always knew how the stores end and she never told anyone. She thought that Varric, but she should have known better. Varric is not a Keeper, not someone who listens and learns; he is a creator, and creators always foolishly believe in dreams and ideals. 

"Come with me," Isabela says surprisingly softly and Merrill turns to her. The woman stands tall, always has, never changing over the years because how could she? She is a soulless, wicked thing and Merrill loves her because of what she is, accepting the things she can never and also does not want to be. "Come with me to the sea."

"I know how all the stories end," Merrill whispers, but Isabela just smiles and strokes her hair.

"You of all people never had to fear me, Kitten," she answers and when she takes Merrill's hand and leads her onto the ship, Merrill follows her without a thought.

////

The sea is endless, just like time. One night, Isabela softly sings her true name into Merrill's ear. Merrill, embedded in the eternal murmur of the sea and the bird's cries and Isabela's arms and voice, listens carefully and keeps the secret in her heart.


End file.
